Strength imbalances between the hamstrings and quadriceps are an essential predictor for hamstring strain in soccer. The study aimed to investigate and compare the muscle strength imbalances of professional soccer players of different performance levels. One hundred and fifty nine senior male professional soccer players from first (n = 75) and second league (n = 84) Portuguese clubs participate...

BACKGROUND Player activities in soccer matches are influenced by the match result and match venue. It is not known whether injury rates are influenced by these factors. PURPOSE To investigate whether there are associations between injury rates and the match result, venue, and type of competition in male soccer. STUDY DESIGN Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. METHODS Twenty-six profession...

Soccer simulation league is one of the founding leagues of RoboCup. In this paper we discuss the past, present and planned future achievements and changes. Also we summarize the connections and inter-league achievements of this league and provide an overview of the community contributions that made this league successful.

Deliberation in highly-dynamic domains such as robotic soccer requires a rich representation language that can deal with continuous change, uncertainty, and multiple agents, among other things. For this purpose we have developed the language ICPGOLOG, a variant of the logic-based action language GOLOG. We show how to specify plans for soccer agents such as playing a double pass in ICPGOLOG and ...

The RoboCup is an initiative to promote the development of robotics in a social relevant way. The competition consists of several leagues and it would be beneficial if developments in one league could be reused in other leagues. This paper describes the development of a simulation model for a humanoid robot inside USARSim, which could be the basis of synergy between the Rescue Simulation, Socce...

Robot Soccer involves planning at many levels, and in this paper we develop high level planning strategies for robots playing in the RoboCup FourLegged League using case based reasoning. We develop a framework for developing and choosing game plays. Game plays are widely used in many team sports e.g. soccer, hockey, polo, and rugby. One of the current challenges for robots playing in the RoboCu...

A new RoboCup soccer league is being developed, focussing on human-robot interaction. In this league each team consists of both human players, mounted on Segway HT scooters, and a robotic version of the Segway; both human and robot players must cooperate to score goals. This paper presents details of the physical design of our autonomous Segway Soccer robot and the modified Segway scooter that ...

This paper presents a dynamic role assignment and formation positioning system used by the 2011 RoboCup 3D simulation league champion UT Austin Villa. This positioning system was a key component in allowing the team to win all 24 games it played at the competition during which the team scored 136 goals and conceded none. The positioning system was designed to allow for decentralized coordinatio...